Chemical Ed-traction
by The Pen Vs The Sword
Summary: The first day of school. A time of hope, joy, and meeting new classmates. Or familiar people assigned as lab partners. Edd/Marie.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

 **Pen:** I thought this was a one-time thing.

 **Sword:** Naw, we're going full crazy on this thing!

 **Pen:** Crazy is right.

Don't worry. It'll be out of our system…In forty or fifty years. For now, let's enjoy, shall we? Hello, all you lovely people. Thank you for joining us. Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Thank you.

 **Sword:** On to more romance! And kissing!

 **Pen:** And nausea.

 **Chemical Ed-traction**

Edd stepped off the bus and shouldered his backpack. His chest swelled with pride at the sight before him: Peach Creek High. Others around him shuffled about with gloomy expressions and muttered unpleasant remarks under their breath. For the life of him, he couldn't see why. This was the next step in their academic lives, the moment they felt closer to institutions of higher learning, and the first day of many enjoyable days of learning and scholastic knowledge in this new school year.

He straightened his tie and smoothed out his pressed vest, ready to meet his fellow students and academic professors with a big smile and a positive attitude. Edd was so excited and enamored with the thought of entering high school, he didn't realize he was blocking the door to the school bus and preventing everyone else from disembarking.

"Come on, Sockhead," Eddy said, pushing him along. "We got to make a good first impression and standing there like a lump won't help." Due to his short stature, his arms only came up to the small of Edd's back. "Speaking of lumps, where's Ed at?"

Their taller, happy-go-lucky friend came rushing off the bus, barreling over several teenagers and laughing like a goofball. His arms flung out behind himself as he ran along to the school, his backpack trailing a pile of crumpled papers and comic books behind him.

"Ed!" Eddy called, but their friend didn't hear them. "Hurry up, Double Dee. We better get him before he hurts himself. Or my reputation," and he chased after Ed.

Edd was happy to see one of his friends shared his excitement for this new school and ran after his two companions. He found them by their lockers, which were conveniently next to his own. As he opened his locker, he listened to Eddy chastise Ed.

"You have to keep calm," he said, dragging Ed's head down under his armpit. "Cool. Suave."

"I'm suave, Eddy," Ed said, assuring him and scratching his red hair. "Sarah makes sure I use it on my hair everyday!"

"He means you should be charming and genial," Edd said, hanging his backpack in his locker and taking out his books for his first class. Advanced Chemistry. One of his favorites.

"Exactly," Eddy said. "We get in here, then we're living rich." He snatched Edd by his beanie and pulled him down to his height, so he was cheek-to-cheek with Ed. "Look at them," he said, directing their gaze to the crowds of students roaming the halls. "It's a buffet of suckers." Already, the dollar signs and dreams of scamming others out of their money were clear and present in his eyes.

"Intriguing as that sounds, I must be getting to my first class," Edd said, pulling out of the grip. "Gentlemen." He left Ed behind with their scheming leader. He was sure he would hear a list of potential get-rich quick ideas once lunch rolled around.

He entered his Chemistry class and noted each lab table was a long black table, already equipped with sinks and other laboratory equipment, and two stools for each table. Blissfully happy, he took a seat at one of the stools for a long black table near a window. Edd placed his books on the table, arranging them in a perfect pattern based on likelihood that the teacher would have them open and use first.

Once finished, he looked up at the clock. He had a few minutes to spare and surveyed the classroom. A few stragglers were still arriving, but most were turned in their chairs in quiet conversation.

Edd realized someone was already sitting in the other stool for his table. Not wishing to be rude, he spun around to introduce himself. "I apologize. I didn't see you there. My name's E-E-E…" he trailed off, swallowing his own name.

The girl sitting beside him appeared as surprised to see him there as he was. More so that he actually chose this particular seat. Her initial surprise gave way to a flirtatious smirk and she brushed her blue hair out of her sole exposed eye. She had shed her hoodie and tied it around her cargo pants. Her black tanktop depicted a band name on the front, but the fabric was rumpled and messy, so he couldn't make the name out. "Miss me that much?"

"Marie," he finally blurted out. "What, uh, what are you doing here? In this class, I mean? Isn't this Advanced Chemistry?"

"Yes," she said, raising an eyebrow. "And?"

"I guess I didn't expect you to be in here."

"You saying I'm not smart?" Her fist tightened, cracking her knuckles. "I won't take that, not even from you."

He waved his hands, not wanting to rile her wrath. "No, no, no. It seems unlike you is all."

She hummed and leaned in closer. "I've always been a fan of chemistry. Chemical attraction, bonding, osmosis." She was right under his chin and the smell of perfume and axle grease stung his nostrils.

Much to his relief, the teacher walked in before Marie could press any further and she reluctantly returned to her side of the table. "Good morning, class. And welcome to your first day of Advanced Chemistry."

After a brief roll call and orientation, the teacher had them sign some various forms and passed out the syllabus for the semester. "Also, please be sure to introduce yourself to the other person at your table," he said, wrapping up his orientation. "For they will be your lab partner for the year." Then he allowed the students a free period to experiment with the chemicals on hand and create whatever they wished.

Edd's hand shot up. "Yes?" the teacher asked.

"May I discuss something with you?" he asked. "In private?"

"Well, I have to file these papers," he said, waving the forms. "But see me after class, okay?"

"Yes, sir," he said and settled down in his chair. Everyone around him started to play with their chemicals and he grabbed his beanie, pulling it low over his head in frustration.

Edd looked over at Marie, who appeared to be asleep with her head on her backpack and her arms covering her face to shield out the light. Peering closer, he saw a pair of headphones over her head and a cord snaking back to the zipper of her backpack. He glanced around, wondering if there was another seat available, preferably with a less amorous and dangerous partner. To his dismay, there were none. Maybe if he was lucky, there would be another kind student who would switch partners with him.

"That's not like you," Marie said, eyeing him above her arms. "Not taking advantage of experimenting?"

She had a point. Might as well make the best of things and talk to the teacher later. Edd gathered a few beakers together and the Bunsen burner, and cycled through the list of chemicals on display. There were so many options, he was unsure where to start first. Each was topped with a lid and several hazardous warnings. A box of gloves lay next to the chemicals. However, Edd was always prepared and pulled his own latex gloves and goggles out of his pocket. He also unfolded his neat lab coat from pocket as well, to protect his tie and vest from any spills.

Glancing to his side, he expected Marie to be asleep. Instead, she was running her fingers over the chemicals as well and had a few beakers and test tubes before her. She turned and sized up his coat and safety equipment. "Looks like you came prepared," she said, smirking.

"Yes, well, safety first," he said. He absently grabbed the wrong chemical, set it back, and watched Marie take it.

She yanked a couple of gloves from the provided box and a pair of safety glasses from under the table, put them on, and started pouring a mixture into one of the beakers. The concoction changed several hues, from clear, to blue, to purple, to yellow, to orange. She poured the mixture into a test tube and pushed a stopper into it.

Edd was fascinated by this undiscovered hidden affinity of hers. Was she even aware of what she was doing? Marie inspected the liquid with a cool, passive face and seemed confident in her work. Still, he never would have taken her for a chemist, much less interested in any scholastic endeavors. This was Marie Kanker, the same aggressive, pugnacious, crude, tough-as-nails girl he feared in his youth who sooner showed her fists than any application to school work.

Then again, as she shook the test tube violently into a red color, he couldn't explain how else she would be in an advanced class if she wasn't knowledgeable in this field. Perhaps there was more than just a passion in science that he didn't know about her? And he actually was a little curious in learning what else there could be.

Once Marie was satisfied with the mixture's red hue and thin viscosity, she laid it on the table. Then she dug in her backpack and produced a bundle of paper towels. She unwrapped it, exposing plaster stains and a cast mold of a hand. "May's hand," she said, looking up at Edd.

She had known he was watching! He returned to his own set of beakers and chemicals, resolved to not take any interest in her experiments. As he untwisted the top of a chemical and poured it delicately into a beaker, measuring out the exact amount, he heard a _thump!_ _Don't look_ , he told himself, still pouring. His eyes wandered to the end of the chemical rack and he jerked them away. _Don't look!_

Even as he replaced his chemical, he saw Marie's elbow out of the corner of his eye. _Don't look._ He stared at his beaker, concentrating intensely on it as if trying to set it on fire.

Edd blinked and he now saw Marie. She had cleaned out a space in the wrist of the hand, scooping out the extra plaster and laying it on the table. She plucked the stopper out of the test tube with the red mixture and dropped a couple of drops of liquid from another test tube into it. The scarlet mixture started to bubble and become watery.

At some point, Marie had started chewing gum. She blew a bubble and stuck it into the test tube. That drew the line and Edd couldn't remain silent at defacing scientific, or school, property. "Uh, excuse me, but—"

"Hold that thought," she said. Jamming the test tube into the hand and setting the hand upright on the table by the flat end of its wrist. "You may want to stand back a bit."

Taking her advice, he took a few steps backwards. Just in time, as the palm of the hand swelled and deflated several times until a quarter-sized hole burst open, spraying some of the red liquid on the table. The rest dribbled profusely down the spattered fingers and wrist, like blood from artery.

The teacher looked up over his glasses at the messy table. Edd rushed forward, dabbing up the red spots with paper towels. "Only an accident," he said, putting on a smile. The teacher raised an eyebrow, but didn't push the subject and returned to his computer.

Marie picked up the hand, removing the test tube from inside it and peeling off any gum left on the tube. "Too bad there's not enough kick in it," she said to herself. "At least most of the gum came out this time." Edd examined the palm. The gum, now red and bloody like the palm, appeared to be like muscle and lower layers of the skin to surround the wound's hole and complete the effect.

"Should remember to use more potassium nitrate," she said to herself.

Edd babbled a series of incomprehensible stutters. "What-Bu-You-How?"

"It's similar to 'The Deadening Part IV: Brain Eaters from the Moon', where ones of the zombies gets shot in the hand in space," she said. "Pretty cool, I think." She folded her arms and looked to him for his input.

"Uh, yeah, it is," he said. "I mean, I didn't expect you to take much of an interest in chemistry."

"I've always liked chemistry." She tossed her head from side to side and re-phrased her statement. "Well, practical chemistry. And it helps with special effects."

"Yes, I suppose it would," he said.

"Not to mention, it's fun."

"Oh, yes, very." Then he picked up on the hint in her voice and the dangerous glint in her eye. He wasn't sure if he liked where this was leading.

"For example," she said, picking up two of the chemicals. "Add two special ingredients with the potential for attraction," she poured the mixture into an empty beaker and pulled a plastic bag of black dirt out of her pocket. "Add little heat." She placed the beaker on the Bunsen burner and cranked it up high. "And a catalyst." She grabbed a pinch of the dirt and threw it into the beaker, then leaned closer to him. "And watch the reaction."

Inside the beaker, the mixture started to boil almost immediately and erupt. Upon closer inspection of the bag, Edd realized the black dirt was black powder and, in some part of his mind, the end result it would have upon the heated chemicals when added together. Between them, the mixture bubbled over and a shot went off with a loud _bang!_ Edd jumped, as did the class, but Marie stayed still, staring at him, with that ever-present grin on her face.

Again, the teacher looked up and all eyes focused on them for a long moment. Edd felt like he himself was part of an experiment for the class. Marie seemed unafraid, merely waiting for his next move or response. _It would be nice to have some of that bravado._

He didn't back down or instantly apologize to the class. Nor did he move away from Marie. Rather, he found himself entranced by her eye, as if it held him in place and stabilized him, calming the nervous palpitations in his chest at the loud explosion just now. For a while, the class faded into the background and there was only the two of them. And the cracked, bubbling beaker, which slowly died down. The mixture inside wasn't quite the same, more of a sloppy goo that spilled onto the counter and seemed to be everywhere, but he didn't care and neither did Marie.

"Well, that was…educational," he said.

"Stimulating," she added, as the bell rung and she shouldered her backpack. "For one's mind."

"Yes, very."

As they headed to the door, the teacher called out to Edd. "Excuse, Mister Eddward. Did you still wish to discuss something?"

He had completely forgotten and turned around. "Oh, um," he looked over his shoulder at Marie's retreating back. She threw him a smirk and merged into the crowd outside.

As he watched her, he knew there was much more to this girl than he had initially thought. She had already surprised him in a good way and this class seemed like a interesting start to the year. The first of many classes that he looked forward to all the more. "No, sir," he said, smiling. "It's nothing." After all, he reasoned to himself as he rushed out of class, as a self-proclaimed scientist, he was curious to see where this path would lead. His brain flashed every warning signal it could, but what was science without a little risk?

 **A/N:** Nice to have that one out of our system.

 **Sword:** Only 39,457 to go.

 **Pen:** I will kill both of you and savor every single moment of it.

Thank you all for reading. Please, let us know what you thought of it. We really would love to hear your thoughts.

 **Sword:** Toodles!


	2. Chapter 2: Study Ed, Play Ed

**A/N:**

 **Pen:** You just couldn't leave well enough alone.

Nope. Besides, this might be fun.

 **Pen:** Like having a hernia.

 **Sword:** Or a heartthrob chasing after you!

…Right. So, let's begin, shall we? Sword?

 **Sword:** Roger-rooney! Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, me, and Pen belong to the author. Please do not use without permission. Thank you to The anti-senpai, Lilly The Omega Wolf, Skater1ooo, and sun and moon12 for their reviews on the last chapter. And special thanks to The anti-senpai for the encouragement to continue this story and to Skater1ooo for their detailed review on the characters that helped with this chapter. And now, please enjoy.

 **Chapter 2- Study Ed, Play Ed**

Over the month, Edd's enthusiasm for coming to school didn't diminish in the slightest. If anything, it only increased. Yes, there was the mental challenge and friends to look forward to, but the one thing that topped his list and set his feet racing through the halls to another day of learning was the Advanced Chemistry class. Each day, Marie displayed more of a side he never knew that stimulated a connection between their minds, almost as if he had found a fellow peer that shared his love for the subject.

Yes, there were still the barrage of flirtatious remarks from Marie. She continued to do her best to whisper suggestive things that made him hot under the collar or approach him in ways that ripped him out of his element and placed him far outside his normal comfort zone.

One particular instance, in showing him how she measured out the exact sample for a corrosive compound, she had stood behind him, with her arms wrapped around his waist. Then she held onto his hands, guiding him through the entire mixing procedure as they picked up test tubes and poured in very minute amounts into a central test tube. The entire time his hands shook and nearly spilled the concoction.

"Careful," she said. "Don't want to burn yourself. Just relax and follow me."

Her hands were deft and careful with the measurements and once they had finished, he commented on it. "It's nice to know you have a delicate touch."

"You don't know the half of it," she had said, standing on her toes so her lips were next to his ear and he swallowed hard. He was thankful the teacher had stepped out for several minutes and that everyone else was absorbed in their work. "It's delicate, but firm." She licked her teeth and directed his hand to slide the central test tube ever so slowly into a clamp to hold it in place, running his hand over the clamp and down to the round base.

 _Oh, my._ He disentangled himself from her as politely as possible, awkwardly stumbling to gather up his books. "Yes, well, I'd best be going," he said.

"Class doesn't end for five more minutes," she said, pointing at the clock.

She was right. "Er, well, I have something I need to do," he said.

"Mind if I join? I need to hit the can anyway." Before he could protest, she swung her backpack over her shoulder and led the way out, with him waddling out on stiff, trembling legs. They parted in the hall and she said farewell with a hip check. "See you tomorrow."

Aside from instances such as those, most of Marie's suggestive comments he took in stride, and even chuckled at from time to time. He cracked a joke here and there and he enjoyed her company. Advanced Chemistry became the highlight of each day.

Since he didn't see much of Marie outside of the one class, he wasn't sure what to think of her overall. He still reeled over her subdued nature compared to a few years ago, but perhaps time had mellowed her out? _After all, it may be like Eddy. He's not as rambunctious as he used to be._ His friend was quite the schemer and always would be. However, he had learned to be more selective with scams and planned them out better these days, even brainstorming contingencies if things went sour, as they tended to go.

However, he was soon to see for himself how much Marie had changed. At the end of the class one Friday, she threw down her pencil and slumped over the review sheet the teacher had assigned them. "Forget this," she said, shoving her paper into the sink and turning the faucet on.

Edd immediately reached over and turned the water off, saving the review sheet. He fetched the paper out of the sink and was thankful only a corner had gotten wet. It was filled with equations for balancing chemical compounds. All week, Marie had been expressing nonstop frustration with the formulas, going so far as to dig holes slowly, maliciously into one of her papers all through class. According to her, she had never had much luck with the problems. "I always hated them," she had said.

"I wouldn't do that," Edd said, shaking the paper dry and laying it next to her. "You'll want to keep these papers. Remember, he could choose any of these to be on the first test."

"I _know_ ," she said, snarling at him. "If I want math work, I have a math class I can skip. I didn't come here to balance crap."

"Balancing chemical compounds are very important, as we can learn the products that result from a given reaction. So without even needing to test it yourself, you can—" She cut him off with a dangerous glare that told him she didn't want to hear his reasoning and that she would rather test the reactions for herself than theorize on the reactions.

He looked over her paper, noting that some of the compounds on this review sheet were pretty tricky. He hated to see her down in the dumps like this, especially when she seemed to be trying so hard. _Huh, what do you know?_ He felt sorry for Marie Kanker. Time does change all, he supposed, but there had to be more to it. He reasoned that part of it was because he hated seeing someone trying to learn and failing despite their best efforts.

"Here, I can help you," he said, scooting closer to her and leaning over her paper, his head next to hers. If younger Edd could see him now, he would no doubt have a panic attack from being this close.

"I'm not in the mood," she said from behind her arms. "Maybe later."

He scratched his head. "Well, perhaps we could meet in the library during lunch?" he suggested.

"I'm busy then." She turned toward him. "How about you come by this weekend and show me? I'll be studying for the test anyway. We can study together."

"Come-Come by?" he asked, the old, all-too-familiar nerves firing up and making his limbs feel heavy and weak. "You mean, by your house?"

"Why not?" she said. "Gotta be better than coming to yours. I'm betting your parents wouldn't like that."

 _True_ , he thought. The Kankers' reputation did precede them. On the first day, people knew them at this high school and steered clear of them. After a few moments of thought, he hesitantly nodded. "Okay, I'll be there."

The bell rang and she sat up. "Great. Not before 10. I like to sleep in on the weekend."

"Very well."

* * *

At five 'til 11, Edd was already regretting meeting her at her trailer that weekend. The dark woods on the way to the infamous trailer park seemed to close in on him, suffocating Edd even in his loose shirt and shorts. This area conjured up many unpleasant memories, most involving him and his friends running full-pelt in the opposite direction from the Kankers' home turf. Now he was willingly headed there, into the belly of the beast and toward all three Kankers. Not a safe area like school where he only associated with one Kanker. His legs hurried through the woods, seeking daylight, although his mind warned him of what was to come up ahead.

Soon, the sun broke through the trees and he entered the trailer park. It was exactly as he remembered. A white trash wonderland with low-rent, low-quality homes as far as the eye could see and enough abandoned engines and car parts that, if assembled, could furnish an auto dealership. He knew the direction to the Kankers' home all too well, having spent much time avoiding the place. Holding his books to his chest as if for protection, he scurried through the rows of homes and to the correct trailer in the middle of the park.

The stained, metal trailer loomed in the distance and he had the distinct impression of eyes watching him. All too quickly, he found himself at the doorsteps of their home. Shades of the Kanker sisters in the past leaning in the doorway, giving him a chance to run before beginning pursuit, tortured his mind. _Calm down. Take it nice and easy_ , he told himself. _This isn't the same. You were invited here under a flag of peace._

Raising a rattling hand, he rapped on the door and waited. Right on cue, a shrill voice that sounded like Marie's yelled, "May! Get the door!"

"You get it!" a deeper voice said. Something hit the wall with a _crash!_ and was followed by heavy stomping.

Nevermind shades of the past. Maybe nothing had changed at all. Maybe the weeks at school had been an act. Edd gulped and considered bolting. But he would never make it around the corner on his spindly legs before he was caught. _Curse my athletic negligence!_

The door swung open and a buck-toothed blonde peered out, wearing plain shorts and a shirt. "Double Dee?" she asked, genuinely confused to see him there.

"Good day, May," he said, acting more confident than he felt. "Is Marie at home?"

She recovered and, with a devious smirk, yanked him into the house and slammed the door shut behind him with all the thunderous boom of a prison cell closing forever. "Marie!" she said in a sing-song voice. "Your man's here!" May leaned into Edd, batting her eyes. "So, did you bring Big Ed with you?"

"Um, no, it's just me," he said, wishing he had brought Ed and Eddy along to stave off the rest of the sisters. Then again, they would both think he had lost his mind if he had told them where he was going today or why. Or that he had even been enjoying time with Marie.

"That's okay," May said, walking her fingers along his books and up his arm. "When you're done, maybe we can have our own special study session."

Before he could stammer out an awkward, but polite refusal, a rough hand grabbed May and flung her backwards into the sole sofa in the living room. "Lay off it, May. You're supposed to be getting dressed. Now get going."

"Okay, okay, geez!" she said and flung a pillow that smacked the other person in the back of the head. She skipped out of the room fast as her target turned around, raising a curled fist, the greeting and family sigil of all Kankers.

"Good day, Lee," Edd said and she returned to him, staring out from beneath a mass of red curly hair and sizing him up. A knowing grin crept up her cheek, exposing her prominent crown, and she nodded.

"Marie'll be right out," she said, her husky voice sending shivers down his spine. And not in a good way. "Don't let me catch you pulling any funny business while we're gone." Her tone seemed to imply that she expected "funny business" and didn't mind as long as she didn't catch them in the act. A quick glance from her eyes under the tangle of hair confirmed it.

 _What exactly does she think is going to happen?!_ he wondered.

"Marie, get out here!" Lee bellowed, making Edd jump. "Gotta greet your guest. Ma didn't raise ya in no barn!"

"Shut your yap!" Marie yelled back. Edd's suspicions were right. Exactly how he remembered when he was younger. "I'm coming! Keep your shirt on!"

She entered the living room, tugging on her clothes and made a beeline for Edd. "Glad you could make it, Oven Mitt. Let's get going."

By that time, May had returned in fresh clothes and Lee opened the front door. "Let's get going, May. Move it."

"My offer's still open," May said, kissing the air at Edd and leaning in close enough that he almost gagged on the overpowering scent of her perfume. An animalistic growl sounded behind him and the next thing he knew, Marie had grabbed May's lips.

"You got your own man," she said. "So beat it!" She swirled May around and flung her out the door like a discus. May sailed far and crashed into something large and heavy outside.

"Make sure you clean up this pigsty while we're gone," Lee said.

"Cram it up your—" but the door shutting had already cut her off. Marie made an obscene gesture at Lee's back. All the same, she gathered up a bundle of her clothes and belongings from the living room and threw them in the hall in a vague direction of her room. "Come on," she said. Edd followed her as she kicked the pile of clothes and other items to her room, flinging them to random corners with her toes once they passed the threshold.

Posters of various horror movies adorned her walls, such as _Night Slasher Takes Staten Island_ , _Greg's Dead: A New Night Terror_ , and _Alien Menace in the Antarctic_ , and many more. _Ed would have a field day in here_ , he thought. Maybe Marie chose the wrong boy of the trio to latch onto?Filling the spaces between were some posters of action and sci-fi movies and hard rock bands. The floor was as messy as the rest of the house, covered in clothes, textbooks, empty soda cans, and who knew what else. The bed, he liked to think, had seen better days and was more broken coils and torn fluff than actual mattress. In the corner, a handheld video camera was hooked up to a television and paused on a view of the neighborhood junkyard.

"Home movies?" he asked.

"No. Here, I'll show you," she said, grabbing the camera. She fast-forwarded to a scene where she had finished setting up a dummy in front of the camera, dressed in some torn shirt and slacks, then hit the play button. A kitchen knife came flying from off the side of the screen and smacked the dummy's chest with its dull end. "Hang on," she said, fast-forwarding through scenes of her throwing and retrieving the knife, upset and punching the dummy as if to blame it for her bad throws.

Finally she stopped on a particular scene and the knife struck true this time. The dummy's chest exploded in a fountain of red gore that resembled raspberry jelly and ketchup. The Marie on-screen plucked the knife out of it, smiling wide like a little kid, happy with her test and pumping her fist.

It wasn't Edd's cup of tea, but he did admire the craftmanship and effort put into it. "Nice job," he nodded.

"Thanks," she said. "Hardest part was getting it to stick to the chest."

"I take it you do this often?"

She shrugged and fiddled with the camera. "Yeah. You can find a lot of stuff in the junkyard to use. Like this." She fast-forwarded the video to another day and the camera was set up at the bottom of a ditch, pointed up at the starry sky. Suddenly, white lights burst into a shower of sparks and colorless embers, like the stars themselves were going supernova. Then beside the camera, chunks of heavy rock fell, some barely missing the lens, and hitting the ground with enough impact to kick up dirt everywhere.

"Amazing," Edd said, kneeling beside the television. "It looks just like a meteor shower."

"Firecrackers and dirt clods," she said proudly, sitting beside him.

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm up there on that pile of cars," she said, pointing at the edge of the screen. "I'm throwing the dirt clods. The firecrackers are hanging from some fishing poles high over the pit. It took me a lot of tries to get it right. Almost caught my camera on fire." She turned the handheld device over, showing him some light scorch marks on the side.

"The ingenuity is astounding," he said to himself, noting too late that he said it aloud.

"Thanks." She skipped a few scenes to another scene of her standing in front of the camera, wrapping a thick blanket around her arm and coating it in some liquid. Then her on-screen self struck a match and set the blanket ablaze, without burning herself in the slightest.

"You're, uh," he searched for a word besides reckless, "very dedicated to your special effects."

"I wish I could actually do it for some movies. I'd love to do the effects for some monster movie." That certainly explained all the posters and how most relied on some sort of make-up artist designing the gore or effects.

"I'm sure you can. You're quite good." He breathed a sigh of relief as the on-screen Marie thrust her arm and the burning blanket into a bucket of water. "They look very real."

"I do all my own stunts too," she said, grinning at him. "I prefer to be very hands-on with my work.

He chuckled nervously. "Yes, well," he cleared his throat and held up his books, "should we begin?"

"Yeah, sure," she said and flopped on the bed, laying on her stomach. Edd sat down beside her, handing her the review sheet for the test. She flipped it over to the section on chemical equations and scrounged for a pen on the floor, discovering one under a candy bar wrapper. She shook it until it could write and set to scribbling on the review sheet.

Edd flipped through his textbook to the section on chemical compounds and soon located it. "Now, the first thing to look at is the number of each element or compound on both sides of the equation," he said. "You want to ensure it matches. For example, for number one, you have 3NaCl + CO on the left and 6NaCl + 2C3O on the right." He leaned over her shoulder, watching her write on the paper and was shocked as she finished the last of the ten problems on the page.

"Done," she said, handing him the sheet.

He took the sheet and checked her answers. Every single one was right. Even her scratch work and notes in the margins were on point. "But I thought you had a lot of trouble with these?"

"Guess you're a good teacher," she said, smiling. He saw right through her thin façade and realized he had been tricked. She knew these equations as easily as she knew how to make chemicals explode. "Can't pay you, but I can reward you." She crawled on her hands and knees until she was face to face with him.

"Why did you want me to come over then?" He should've listened to his instincts. This _was_ a trap and Lee and May would burst out of the woodworks at any moment to tie him down. With her position over him though, he couldn't very well leave either.

She blew a puff of hair out of her exposed eye. "Thought we could hang out, do something, watch a movie, or whatever. Something outside of chemistry for a change."

"You could've asked," he said.

Marie gave him a deadpan look. "And would you have come?"

She had him there. If given the choice, Edd wasn't sure. "Still, I don't appreciate being tricked."

"Can dish the scams, but can't take them?" she asked teasingly.

 _Curse her quick jabs._ However, unlike Eddy and Ed, she did have him on the verbal ropes. It was then that he noticed a strange, curious expression in her eye. "What?"

"Just wondering if you're going to nut up and meet me halfway."

He took stock of their position and understood what she meant. At some point, he had fallen back further until he was almost flat on the bed. She had strategically placed herself so that her hips pressed against his own, grinding into him with any movement he made. Her body hung over him in such a way that he was forced to admire her shapely body and assets. Marie was leaning in close, her pouty lips ready and anxious to meet his.

And he despite his inexperience with this situation, he actually raised his head, his own eyes closing of their own accord. It was as if a force took control deep inside him and guided him to align his mouth to hers. _What on Earth am I doing?_ He puffed out his own lips, waiting to connect to hers, and shut his eyes tight.

She chuckled and his eyes snapped open, fearing some new prank. But Marie was simply shaking her head and laughing good-naturedly at the fact his head had barely moved a few inches. "I guess that's good enough for now," she said, cupping his cheek and closing the gap between them.

He expected the horrors of his youth. Short, forceful kissing that smothered his face in lipsticks for hours, even days. And his nerves tingling with fear and a fight-or-flight response, leaning sharply toward the latter.

His nerves did tingle. But in all the right ways. The sensation was electric as she kissed him. Not too hard, not too soft. Firm enough for him to understand he wasn't getting out of it. To be honest, he didn't really want to end the kiss. It was enjoyable as their lips closed on one another, opened again, constantly finding and losing that right mold.

By the time her tongue glided along his lips, he was running out of air. He flailed his arms and she broke the kiss, giving him a chance to breathe. "Guess you're not used to that yet, huh?"

"No," he said, panting. "I mean, yes, you're right. But I also needed some air."

"Sorry," she said, touching her nose to his. "I'm overzealous. It's a weakness."

 _That's an understatement_ , he thought. He licked his lips, tasting the sensation still on them, and sat up. "I need a minute," he said, attempting to gather his thoughts. His brain was too active, too wired to think straight about everything that just occurred. The experience was fresh and with Marie sitting beside him, he knew he wouldn't be able to sort things out.

"I got an idea," Marie said, flopping down in his lap and handing him one of the review sheets. "Let's take a load off and go over this stuff some more. We do have a test after all. Then maybe we can watch some movies afterwards or some more effects."

He scanned the chemistry test sheet. _Yes, that should help._ Some good old-fashioned school work would clear his mind and give him a chance to work through everything step by step. "Very good. Yes, let's do that," he said, straightening his paper.

"And a kiss for every one we get right," she added. His eyes shot down to her. "Call it incentive."

"W-Well I'm not sure," he said, but she cut him off.

"First one, answer is a solvent," she said and cleared her throat, looking up expectantly at him.

He batted the idea back and forth. His body shook once more, still unsure about all of this. However, as she leaned up to meet him most of the way, he couldn't deny a certain interest in dipping his toes into these uncharted waters again and exploring their depths. Throwing caution to the wind, he closed the short little distance between them, enjoying a brief kiss.

When they broke apart, he felt a little more sure and ready for the next one. "Your turn," she said.

As he prepared to read the next question, his mind wandered briefly into thoughts that definitely did not seem like his own. _Perhaps we should study together more often?_ He looked down at Marie and found himself matching her grin.

 _Perhaps we should_ , he agreed with the foreign suggestion.

 **A/N:** See? That was fun, wasn't it?

 **Pen:** I feel nauseous and violated.

 **Sword:** Maybe I can violate you a little. We could go and—

Okay, that's enough from you two! *scoots them out of the room* Uh, growing writing utensils and weapons will be, uh, writing utensils and weapons. Er, anywho, thank you for reading this and please let us know what you think of the story so far. We'd love to hear from all of you. Take care!


	3. Chapter 3: Do You Deny Ed?

**A/N:** Now do you two promise to behave?

 **Pen:** It was her, not me!

I don't care. You both need to cut down on the, uh—

 **Sword:** Steamy atmosphere?

For lack of a better word, yes.

 **Sword:** Okay. I guess they'll be plenty more of that here anyway. And look! Peoples!

Oh, hello, everyone. Welcome back. As always, Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Thank you to Lilly the Omega Wolf, Tha-Fry-Man, madmusicman, and the guest for their reviews. And now, please enjoy.

 **Chapter 3- Do You Deny Ed?**

"Double Dee!" Eddy shouted a third time, yanking on Edd's beanie.

His train of thought derailed, Edd pulled out of Eddy's hold and straightened his trusty hat. "I'm sorry. Yes?"

"I asked if you did the math homework already. I need to write them down, copy them, and sell the answers before last period," he said. Eddy had made them a tidy profit lately, scouting out those more willing to part with cash than put in the work of doing their homework for good grades. They had a pretty good system going, as Eddy had accrued an unusually high number of clientele that demanded their work. Edd figured he must have been working himself harder than normal, pitching their offer to as many classes as possible.

Edd's only contribution was to do his homework and let Eddy handle the rest. "It's simple. Do your homework a day early so everyone else can copy it," Eddy had said. The one area that Edd had put his foot down was handing over his homework for Eddy to make copies. He knew that given Eddy's gravitating tendency towards money, returning Edd's homework in a neat condition, or on time, might slip his mind momentarily.

Edd nodded and dug through his heavy backpack on the table, shoving aside books, fishing out his math notebook, and flipping to the appropriate pages. "Here they are—" but Eddy had already snatched the pages out of the notebook and was copying them as fast as possible, leaving a strands of ripped paper ends tangled in the notebook's spiral spine. "Eddy!"

"Relax," he said, focusing on the homework and scribbling nonstop. "You'll have to take the papers out to turn them in anyways."

"Yes, but I'd like them not be creased when I do," he said, taking the first page as Eddy finished. "And the least you can do is tear off the ends properly." He folded the end of the paper, tearing the edge along its perforated line. "Messy, messy, messy."

"Yeah, yeah," Eddy said, slapping another completed page in front of him.

"And make sure you're copying the notes I wrote this time," he said. He had put in painstaking effort to give the students' their money's worth, showing exactly how he came to the correct answer and jotting down his entire thought process.

" 'Make sure you're copying the notes'," Eddy mimicked Edd's voice quietly, although he heard it clearly over the noise of the cafeteria.

Ignoring Eddy, Edd continued to straighten the papers until they were a perfect rectangular shape, with very little folds and no dangling threads of paper on their sides. Then he carefully slid them back into his notebook and stacked the notebook upon the other books in his backpack.

Before he zipped up his backpack, he caught sight of the spines of the books he had checked out from the library: _Relationships & You_, _The Art of Women: Understanding the Opposite Sex_ , and _Women are from Venus and I've Crash-Landed There: A Self-Help Guide_. He sighed and laid his chin back in his arms, returning to his original thoughts.

His mind still reeled from the past weekend with his study session with Marie. They had spent the rest of the morning trading answers and kisses, then watching more of her special effects until Lee and May came home, which he promptly took as his cue to leave quietly. Lee had watched him depart, again that sly face already aware of what had occurred.

While he had enjoyed himself, since then, he had experienced nothing except agonizing days wondering what this meant exactly for Marie and him. Were things different now? They didn't seem to be. For the past few days each morning, they had continued their same routine in Chemistry, her coming onto him and making suggestive quips, like "having another study session" the next weekend, but nothing that really acknowledged a new step in whatever was happening between them. _Whatever that is._ Something more than a friendship? A relationship? He had no idea.

After class on Monday, he had confronted Marie about where they were at. "So, last weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she said, tucking her hair back behind her ear.

"Uh, well," he searched for the right words, "are we courting?"

She lifted her hair, exposing her other eye as both swelled. Then she burst out laughing, holding onto the side of the table for support. " 'Courting'? Look at you," she said, doubled over with her head in her hands. She adopted a mock, posh accent. "How forward of you, sir! To ask for a lady's hand in courtship! Thou are a knave!" She playfully slapped his cheek with a piece of paper, acting as if it were a glove and calmed down. "Seriously, courting?"

"You know what I mean," he said. "Are you and I going steady?"

She laughed again and waved her hand. "You're going to make me pee." Marie wiped a tear from her eye. "Well, I don't know. Are you going to give me your letterman's jacket? Because Bud just gave Cindy-Lou his." He opened his mouth and she pressed a finger to his lips, shushing him for a moment. "Before you embarrass yourself further, the term you're looking for is 'dating'. Also, 'boyfriend and girlfriend' is acceptable."

"Fine, are we boyfriend and girlfriend?" he asked.

"You've always been my boyfriend. Nothing's changed there," she said with a coy grin, then waved as she left him there, confused, frustrated, and with a larger headache than before. That answer didn't solve anything and further muddled the issue on where he now stood with Marie.

Therefore, Edd had grabbed some relationship books from the library, pouring through them in his spare time. None had helped so far. Then again, none had a "Marie" or "Kanker" section that fit this situation perfectly

He had considered asking for Eddy's advice on the subject last weekend. Despite his friend's questionable success with women, he did spend about as much time studying them as Edd did more scientific endeavors. Perhaps he would be able to shed some light on the subject when he could break out of his trance of copying homework.

To his surprise, Ed and Eddy had been scarce that weekend and no one really saw them. He had found it strange, as they usually let him know if they had something planned and would invite him along. But Edd had been too stressed out with Marie to dwell on it too much.

His eyes trailed over to the space on the bench on the other side of Eddy. _Speaking of scarce_ , he thought, looking around, _where's Ed?_ Then a sneaking suspicion crept up his back. "Oh, no," he said, dreading to turn to the salad bar in the fear of what he would find.

His fears were founded. There was their tall friend, shoveling up the croutons by the armful onto his tray and dumping any more he could fit into his mouth and pockets. One of the lunch ladies was swatting his hands with a wooden spoon, which was like trying to stop a speeding car with your hand. It wasn't likely to happen.

Ever since Ed had discovered the croutons were glazed and cooked to a crisp in butter, there was no slaking his appetite for his "mini-buttered toasts". "No!" Edd called to their friend. "Ed, you stop that at once!"

Eddy looked up from his work at the commotion and clapped his hands, egging Ed on. "Ed, you animal! Go! Go!"

"Ed!" Edd yelled sternly again. "Ed!"

Behind Ed, a tall, lanky boy carrying his own tray of food patted his back. "Hoh, hoh! Those stale breadcrumbs will not harden that noggin of yours, Soft-in-the-Head Ed Boy."

"Rolf's right, Plank," a shorter boy said behind them, propping a piece of wood with a painted face between himself and his tray. "Those croutons are pretty stale. Let's get some fries instead."

Finally content with his pockets bursting to the brim with croutons, and his cheeks stuffed like a squirrel, Ed jogged to their table, leaving the lunch lady throwing disgruntled swears after him. He plopped down on the other side of Eddy and held out his hands, coated in crumbs and croutons.

"Want some?" he asked.

"Watch it, you lummox," Eddy said, shoving his hand away and brushing off his papers. "You'll ruin the answers."

Edd politely declined Ed's offer and let his mind wander again, returning to Marie. The more he thought about every moment of the past few days, the more ragged his mind felt. He was spinning in circles and his anxiety and frustration built, making his throbbing head worse. Was this all another game to her like in their youth? Part of it seemed real, the other part seemed like she was messing around with him. The closer he came to her, the more she acted the same as when they were younger. Was it all an act?

"Hey!" Eddy waved his hand in front of his face. "Earth to Double Dee. Come in, Double Dee!"

"Are we going to space?" Ed asked.

Ignoring him, Eddy tapped the page. "Can you explain this part?" he said, indicating a lengthy problem. "Come on."

"Why the rush?" Edd asked.

"Because the sooner I can make copies of this, the sooner I can move onto another class," he said. "After all, we need the cash to look sharp."

"For what?"

He gestured at the banners strung across the cafeteria, announcing the Homecoming Dance in two weeks. "For that, of course. The biggest dance of the year."

Edd gave him a dubious look. "I thought that was prom."

Eddy waved him off. "Nobody goes to prom anymore. They go to homecoming. That's not only where the fine ladies from our school go to," he said, casting a sweeping arm throughout the cafeteria to some cheerleaders and popular girls in particular, "but it's also where girls from other schools can come. Think about it. Girls from out of town, other schools, maybe even college students visiting their old stomping grounds?" He nudged both of his friends and waggled his eyebrows. "College babes here within our reach. And us showing up stag in new suits. No better opportunity than that, boys." His eyes seemed to gleam with the prospect of hooking a girl outside of his age range and he was too enamored by the idea to consider the unlikeliness of it.

"Looking at other girls might make your dates very angry," a familiar, husky voice said. Three girls with food trays took the seats on the other side of the table, facing the trio.

"Kankers," Eddy muttered.

"Bark all you want, but if you go chasing them, that's when we'll get upset and find new dance partners," Lee said. Her sisters smiled at one another, reminding Edd very much of the old days when the sisters seemed to be in on a joke that usually resulted in misery for him and his friends.

"As if we would go with you," Eddy said, returning to the homework and ignoring them. He elbowed Edd. "Now, how'd you get this answer?"

"Careful. You may not understand it, Eddy. Then again," Lee said, crossing her arms and exchanging a glance with May and Marie, "I hear your friend is quite the tutor." May giggled to herself and Lee cocked her head. "Especially in Anatomy."

Eddy raised an eyebrow and looked at Edd. All eyes were on him now, putting him in the spotlight. It did no favors for his headache. "I have no idea what you're referring to," he said.

"Don't be shy, cutie," Marie said, leaning across the table with lidded eyes. "I have an oral Spanish test next week. I could use some help practicing the roll of my r's," she said, trilling her tongue in a low purr. Edd gawked at her. What game was she playing at? First she acted like nothing had changed, then she wanted to flaunt their study session to everyone?

"Right," Eddy said, shaking his head. "Like Edd would spend time with you." Marie threw him a dirty look. While Ed had ducked his head into the comforts of his jacket, Eddy stood his ground, returning the angry glare.

"Ask him yourself," Marie said, redirecting everyone back to Edd.

Sick to death of being unable to piece together this girl, her cryptic answers, and flippant nature of whatever was between them, Edd took a deep breath. "I helped Marie study for a chemistry test this past weekend." Eddy's eyebrows shot up and Marie gave him a triumphant smug, vindicated in Edd's admission. "However," he said, "all we did was study. That's all that happened." He turned to Marie, looking her in the eye and thankful that he was seated. Otherwise, he was liable to fall to his knees under the weight of his anxiety. "As you so clearly pointed out this morning, nothing has changed."

Eddy and Marie traded expressions, with Eddy chuckling to himself and Marie's mouth dropping open. Edd's chest swelled with a certain satisfaction at outmaneuvering her at her own game. She appeared crestfallen as she sat back down, her brows knitting together and a deep, angry wrinkle forming along the bridge of her nose.

Looking between her sister and Edd, Lee took a thoughtful bite of food. "Whatever you say," she said. Then she turned to Eddy, sliding him a folded piece of paper across the table with some names on it. "Here," she said. "Got a new group."

"Thanks," he said, taking the paper and trying to avoid her eyes. He stuffed the paper into his pocket and returned to copying answers.

Edd didn't really pay much attention to the exchange. He was too focused on stealing glances at Marie. Her face seemed to hover back and forth between disappointed heartbreak and righteous betrayal. She picked limply at her food, hardly eating it. Then when he made the mistake of catching her eye, she would jam her fork into the tray and shoot him daggers.

In the confusion and temporary bravado of showing her up, Edd had forgotten the golden rule: never upset a Kanker. They had a notorious temper and they would retaliate. They may even retaliate for no reason, but things would be worse if provoked. He started to envy Ed's jacket and wished he had one to hide in too. He was a letter short to be the Ed with gumption who didn't back down from the Kankers after all.

Everyone else at the table seemed to sense the incoming explosion. Ed had slowly started to come out of his shell at May's calm coaxing that everything was fine. Although May mostly flirted and talked Ed out of hiding, she and Lee kept a wary eye on Marie. Even Eddy moved his nearly finished answers to the opposite side of the tray, into Ed's leftover crouton crumbs.

Thinking he should stem the fury, Edd spoke up. "Um, Marie." Her glare pierced his little courage, but he continued. "May I discuss something with you after school?"

She abruptly stood, flipped her tray of food over onto him, and marched out of the cafeteria. Cold juice seeped into Edd's clothes and his nice, pristine vest was stained with mashed fries, ketchup, and bits of chicken. He hopped out of his seat, tripping over the bench. The other students in the cafeteria ooohed as Edd called after her.

"Marie! Wait!" He grabbed a few napkins in passing, wiping down his clothes. "Marie!"

By the time he reached the doors, the bell rang, announcing that lunch was over. The students dumped their food and filed out after him. He tried to search for Marie in the crowd, but couldn't pick out her blue hair anywhere.

"This is not good," he said to himself. "Not good at all."

* * *

Edd tried and failed to catch Marie at the bus stop later that day. He had figured spotting a shock of blue hair in the middle of a crowd would be easy. Yet she eluded his sight and he trudged home alone. Throughout the day, his stomach had felt worse and worse until he wanted to throw up, dreading the chemistry class tomorrow. He had upset Marie and he hadn't meant to. Not that much. He didn't know what had come over him. That was poor wording and he could've pulled her aside to talk to her in private.

While he chastised himself on the situation and replayed how he could have handled it better, he didn't feel like he was in the wrong. He was right in his assertion that if Marie wanted to act like nothing had changed, then he would act like that too. _It isn't being petty_ , he argued with himself. _She's made it clear and there's no sense harboring any fondness for something that she doesn't share, no matter how pleasant it was._

And now that he thought about it, pulling her aside again wouldn't have helped. It didn't on Monday and nothing had improved since then. All the same, he still regretted how he had acted. Therefore, despite Marie's unreasonable outburst, he was willing to be the bigger person and offer an olive branch. The next day, he showed up to class bright and early before anyone else arrived, his stomach a nauseous mixture of righteous indignation and optimism to make amends.

The students filed in one by one and he patiently waited for Marie. As the clock ticked steadily to the bell with no sign of her, he feared that maybe he had driven her off. What if she had skipped school or had dropped out of this class?

A few seconds before the bell rang, she strolled in and swung her backpack onto the lab table with a heavy _whump!_ Everyone looked up at her, but she ignored them, rifling through her backpack. She no longer seemed angry, nor heartbroken. In fact, she didn't seem to be much of anything, completely expressionless, with a bored gaze and robotic movement.

"Uh, Marie?" Edd tried. She didn't acknowledge him and by then the teacher was lecturing them. Edd waited until free time before scooting his chair closer to her. She was already setting to work on another homework assignment.

"Marie," he said and she finally glanced at him. The fire in her eyes from yesterday was still there, a smoldering ember that could be rekindled at any point. He had to step carefully. "Uh, about yesterday…at lunch…?"

"Spit it out," she said, too devoid of any emotion. It set him on edge and he worried he had already stepped on a land mine.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday." She paused, holding a test tube aloft. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"Upset? Why would I get upset?" she said.

"Please, that wasn't my intention—" he started, but she cut him off.

"Could've fooled me. Used and dropped me like that."

"You came onto me and dropped me," he said, upset about her jab.

"I did not. You're crazy."

"You're one to talk. You ruined my clothes yesterday. I'll be getting the smell of greasy fries out of my vest for a week!"

She gritted her teeth. "Oh, you think I ruined your stuff? That's nothing." She grabbed some of the chemicals at the table, sloppily dumping one liquid after another into a flask and splashing the contents onto the table. As she shook and mixed it, Edd leaned back warily, aware that many of the contents she had poured into the beaker were acidic in nature. "I can really ruin your stuff."

"Be careful with that!"

"Oh, this?" she asked, holding up the flask and pouring it onto his notebook. The liquid bubbled a bright pink color and ate a hole quickly through the cover and sheets inside. Edd yelped and grabbed one of the protection gloves and some towels, trying to wipe it up.

Marie laughed and raised the flask to dump out the rest on his backpack. "No!" he shouted, grabbing her hand. His textbooks were in there! He needed those! He wrestled her for the beaker, but she was overpowering him fast. His only option was to throw the beaker onto the ground, out of harm's way from the backpack and them.

Jerking suddenly to the right and away from themselves, Edd forced the glass out of her hand. It crashed onto the ground, flinging shards everywhere on the ground. A large clump of the pink goo splashed Marie's stool, eating through two of the legs and throwing her off her seat. Her head cracked into the lab table and she plummeted to the floor.

"Oh my goodness!" Edd hopped off his stool and kneeled down to help her. "Are you okay?" He felt the back of her head and she winced where he touched it. There was a sizable bump growing already. "Here, let me help."

She slapped his hand away, her face contorting in rage. Then she pounced on him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pinning him to the ground with all her might, choking the air out of his lungs. He wheezed and she sat up, cracking her knuckles and preparing a curled fist. Edd stiffened, unsure which way to dodge to avoid the strike.

"Marie Kanker," the teacher called. The fight paused and she whipped her head to the front desk, where the teacher shot a withering look over his glasses. "Principal's office. Now. And detention first thing tomorrow morning with me."

She turned back to Edd and with her murderous glare, he thought she might resume her intended beating. Instead, she dropped her fist, snatched her backpack, and slammed the classroom door shut with a loud _bang!_ on her way out.

Edd sat up, thanking his lucky stars for the teacher. "Do you need to go to the nurse's office, Eddward?" he asked.

"No," he said, checking himself for any sore areas. "But Marie does. She has a lump where she hit the table."

"I'll let the principal know," he said and left the classroom. The students returned to their work, disappointed the show was over.

Edd's mind reeled as he gathered up his books in his backpack. What had prompted Marie to resort to that? Destroying his notebook and threatening to destroy more? Not that it was the first time a Kanker had ruined something. A good portion of their scams when they were younger had been broken and vandalized by the Kankers. This incident and Marie's violent episode were no different than those days.

But something about that notion didn't sit right with him. This wasn't the same as his childhood days. It was more than retaliation for a mere slight on Marie's part, which normally would be over and done with after yesterday. There was something else under the surface, something unspoken that he couldn't quite place.

He knew that was the case, for his first concern when the fight broke up was Marie seeing the nurse. Even now, he hoped she would be okay. _Well, she's hurt. I would be concerned for anyone's safety and health._ A nagging feeling told him there was more to it than that. As if the answers to why he concerned himself and Marie's lashing out were related and were sitting right under his nose.

The bell rang and he finished gathering his books. He would check on Marie later. For now, he needed to throw himself into some school work to clear his head and anxiety. School was much easier to understand than the opposite sex.

 **A/N:** This one took quite a while longer than we planned. We were agonizing over getting certain parts right.

 **Sword:** But it was fun to get Rolf and Johnny in!

Yes, it was. Thank you all for reading and please, let us know what you think of the story so far. We'd love to hear your feedback.

 **Sword:** I guess we have to be cross at each other now, Pen.

 **Pen:** I always am cross with you.

 **Sword:** That's the spirit!


	4. Chapter 4: Sorry, My Ed

**A/N:** Wow. We didn't expect so much feedback on the last chapter.

 **Pen:** I tried to leave my own feedback, but this site keeps censoring my messages.

 **Sword:** Life is hard for the son of a shepherd. Er, writing utensil.

Nice to see you getting into character. Let's get to it, shall we? Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Thank you to madmusicman and Lilly The Omega Wolf for their reviews on the last chapter. And now, please enjoy.

 **Sword:** Ed-boys!

 **Chapter 4- Sorry, My Ed**

Later that day, Edd swung by the nurse's office, hoping to find Marie being tended to by the nurse. Unfortunately, he was too late. "No need to worry," the nurse assured him about her injury. "A bruise and some swelling, but as long as she takes it easy for a few days, she'll be fine."

That was one burden off his chest and he searched high and low for Marie the rest of the day with no luck. Therefore, he resolved to come into school tomorrow during detention and catch her. _She won't be able to lose me in there._

Sure enough, early Friday morning she was in the Advanced Chemistry class, her chin in her hand while the teacher was engrossed in work on his computer. The classroom was dead empty otherwise, and completely quiet. As soon as she saw him, she tightened a fist, giving him second thoughts of approaching her. Still, they had to confront this head-on. The longer he allowed this incident to fester, the worse it would be in the long run.

He took a seat beside her and leaned over. "Marie," he said and she turned away from him.

The teacher looked up from his monitor and blinked in surprise at the unexpected guest for detention. "Eddward?" he asked. "May I help you with something?"

"No, sir," he said. "I needed to ask Marie about, uh, some homework."

"That can wait until later. Right now she is in detention until the first bell and no talking is permitted. Please find another seat away from one another." His eyes flitted back and forth between the two students, as if afraid another fight would break out.

"Very well," Edd said and took a seat a row over from and parallel to Marie. During the rest of detention, he kept trying to catch her eye, mouth to her, or gain her attention. She refused to look his way, facing the wall instead. Once the first bell sounded to announce to students that class would begin shortly, Edd stood and reached out for Marie. She was quicker on the take, already out the door with her backpack.

Edd tried to follow and was shoved backwards by the incoming crowd of students. By the time he fought his way through the throng, she was gone again.

Like yesterday, Edd didn't see Marie at all during school. He searched for her at lunch, but there was no Kanker in sight. His friends didn't seem to mind. Eddy was too busy fanning out a stack of bills in front of them at their lunch table.

"Check it, boys," he said. "Our cut of the profits, minus some expenses. Enough to get something for Homecoming. We probably got enough here for a limo too." Edd absent-mindedly did a quick calculation of the money and estimated there may be enough left over for a taxi at best. Eddy divided up the money between them evenly. "Get yourselves something sharp and stylish. Ed, you better not buy any comics with this." Ed whimpered, jutting a quivering lip, but Eddy jammed a warning finger in his face. "No. Comics."

Edd pocketed the money, paying more attention to Marie's absence. It was becoming clear to him that he couldn't corner her at school. There was only one option left that he could think of, one place to return to. And it terrified him.

* * *

That weekend, Edd once again stood in the middle of the nefarious trailer park, wondering what insanity possessed him to put himself here once again. Last time was the only time he had been lucky to come out intact. And now he was staring down the Kanker trailer, opening the screen door and raising an unsteady hand.

 _I must be out of my mind_ , he thought as he knocked on the door. He alternated between short, loud knocks, and quiet taps. Even his body couldn't decide if he should go through with this or not, and part of him hoped no one was home.

Fortune did not favor him. "Who's making that racket this early? Can't a girl shower in peace?" someone yelled inside. The door swung open and Lee stood there, in all her majesty, with a scratchy pink fur robe tied around her and a large towel haphazardly wrapped around her head. "I'll murder ya if ya don't get out of here in—Oh, it's you," she said, her hands on her hips. "What do you want?"

"Um, is Marie at home?" Edd asked, planting his feet firmly into the ground so they didn't wobble as much. "I need to talk to her."

"Darn right, you need to talk to her," Lee said, leaning against the doorway. "That was cold, what you did."

Edd almost blurted out, "What I did?!" but remembered that he was here to better the situation, not make things worse. "Is she inside?"

"She's out," Lee said, picking her teeth and flicking bits of food onto the carpet. "Good thing too. I ain't had a moment's peace for the past few days. It's nonstop about you. Hopefully, she won't be back for a while. If you need to talk to her, I think you know where to find her."

He did? Edd ran through a list of possibilities in his mind. _School? No. The cul-de-sac? Not likely, unless she wanted to beat someone up._ _The forest for a walk? Doesn't really seem like her style._ Then it clicked. _The junkyard._

Lee noted the realization on his face. "There you go."

From in the trailer, May called, "Dibs on the shower!"

Lee whirled around with a growl, slamming the door shut. "I'm still in there!"

"I don't _see_ you in there! I need to get ready for my date!"

"Me too!" Loud fighting and cursing ensued, so Edd tip-toed away, not wanting to get caught in the middle of that argument too.

He made haste to the junkyard, running as fast as he could. The junkyard was closed for the weekend and the property shut with a locked gate, but that had never stopped any of the neighborhood kids before. Edd located the two boards in the fence that everyone knew split apart and wedged himself through the tight-fitting gap. _Getting a little too big for this._

Once through, he scanned the piles of trash and debris everywhere. If one man's trash was another man's treasure, then this was a dragon's horde to somebody. Worn tires, construction equipment, and general garbage rose high into mountains, each seemingly crowned by a beat-up, dilapidated car. Edd couldn't deny there was some hidden value here. After all, besides finding intriguing items here, he and his friends had often scavenged the junkyard for scam props when they couldn't find materials at home to use.

But there was no time for wistful remembrance. He had to find Marie. He began his trek, wandering through and around mountains of trash, afraid he would run into her around any corner. He didn't and each time she didn't appear, his lungs deflated. But his heart remained in his throat, nervous about each prospect when he rounded a hill. If she was there, it would be time to face the wrath. If not, it was only a delay of the inevitable.

He didn't even know what he would say. All day and all night he had racked his brain with no success. He wanted to apologize properly, yet he expected one in return. She had gone from simply mad to irrational with that acidic mixture. Yet at the same time, he was scared. Scared about the outcome, about what could happen, about not learning what more there was to her anger, and, most of all, losing her.

After all, he had enjoyed his time with her during the pleasant moments. And he yearned to return to that. But on the dangerous precipice which he now stood, the stable ground of flirtatious friendship and sharing interests seemed to be on the other side of a canyon from him, unreachable unless some miracle flitted him to the other end.

Edd stopped and cocked an ear. In the distance, he heard someone rummaging through metal objects and a distant car horn. The horn shut off after a few seconds. It had to be Marie! He turned in the direction of the noises and ran full-sprint for the lion's den.

He stopped beside a beat-up Volkswagen and peered over the hood. In the middle of a small clearing, there were a few crash test dummies and a camera beside them. Much to his chagrin, the dummies had been crudely painted with black scalps and red shirts. Various instruments of torture laid strewn around them: buzzsaws, heavy furniture, ropes to draw and quarter bodies. All of them seemed to be missing at least one limb. Another series of horror movie special effects, he supposed. He gripped his black beanie and checked his own limbs, ensuring they were still attached.

 _Definitely Marie's camera,_ he thought, noting the scorch marks on the camera in the dirt. _But where is the director?_

"What are you doing here?" someone behind him asked.

Edd jumped and looked down. There, glaring up at him with a red, bloodshot eye, was Marie.

"I, uh, the thing is…" he stammered, unsure how to start this. All the vague notions of how to approach her had been spooked out of him by her sudden appearance.

"Spit it out," she said. "I'm busy."

 _Dismembering me_ , he thought, glancing quickly at the dummies. Still, better to take her anger out on those things than him. "Lee told me I could find you here," he said. "I was hoping we could talk."

"About what?" she said. Her eye seemed darker than normal until he realized that she had bags under it.

 _Probably up late conjuring revenge scenarios._ "We never finished Thursday."

"You're right about that," she said, cracking her knuckles. "We didn't. I still owe you a punch or two."

He couldn't let himself be intimidated. Not again. There was no school official to stop her this time. Afraid as he might be, he had to put on a brave face. If only to hold her at bay for a few more minutes. Using the Volkswagen for support for his body, he crossed his arms. "I think your damage to my notebook did more than enough. I lost a couple of pages' worth of notes. Not to mention the food you dumped on me."

"That's not good enough for what you did," she said.

"What I did?!" She was still being unreasonable about this? "What _you_ did! Lest we forget, you started this!"

He heard her teeth grind in her skull and saw the throw as soon as her hands grabbed him. In an instant, he was sailing through the air and tumbled underneath some garbage. Specifically, he realized as he shook his vision clear and looked up, a broken-down dog house. The irony wasn't lost on him.

She stomped over, ripping him out from underneath the doghouse by his leg, then shoved him against a mountain of garbage. Marie jammed her palm into his chest, holding him in place while she wound up her other fist, cracking her knuckles and limbering up her wrist with a few twirls.

Despite the impending doom on his skull, Edd wasn't concerned with any bodily harm. Instead, he was staring wide-eyed at her. Past the anger in her eyes and deeper. For only a moment, a very brief moment, she had dropped her guard. It was like a door had opened and he had jumped inside to safety, accidentally viewing the inner parts of her soul.

He saw a look of betrayal. Honest-to-goodness betrayal. She genuinely believed he had stabbed her in the back somehow and that was the source of her anger.

As he ran through every possible scenario where he could be at fault, another wave of realization swept over him. He had seen that exact look once before. A few years ago, back on a friend's face.

It was the same expression Eddy had on the day they had met Eddy's brother.

That day, Eddy had had his carefully built façade of coolness and how close he was with his even cooler big brother, whom he looked up to, shattered into a million pieces. His brother had in one fell swoop betrayed Eddy and left him lying on the ground, upset and exposed to all those he knew.

Now when Edd gazed down at Marie, he had seen the same exact expression and understood why. Whereas Eddy had his defenses stripped away without consent, Marie had naturally lowered hers for him. She had never done that before for Edd. There was always the impenetrable wall of misunderstanding between the Eds and the Kankers, which contributed to their fear of the sisters.

But she had let him in for brief visits, allowing him inside and showing parts of herself he never knew. Her own love for chemistry that seemed to mesh with his in its odd manner; her creativity that, quite frankly, rivalled his own work on scams; and her honest interest in him. Her coy, flippant nature hadn't been meant to drive him off. That wasn't Marie playing games. That was just Marie, the normal Marie, the Marie she showed to everyone and he was most familiar with. Yet he had been given the privileged access few others had been granted to see the truth underneath, to witness her real feelings and that, like the tip of an iceberg, there was so much more beneath the surface of her outer nature. That whatever he thought he saw on top did not fully represent what she truly thought.

And he had squandered this rare opportunity by not realizing it earlier. She had let him in and because of that, he had been able to unknowingly tear down the tender areas that made up the inner lining of her hard shell. He had betrayed her and while he was not completely in the wrong due to his ignorance, he wasn't completely in the right either.

"Hey!" Marie said. Edd shook his head and closed his dry, gaping mouth. He had zoned out and the here and now came back into focus. "Where'd you go? Wishing you weren't here right now?"

He studied her bloodshot eye, counting the bags underneath it. There was a puffy and had a pink tinge to her eye. Lee's words rang in his ears. _That was cold, what you did_ , her voice reminded him and he put the pieces together, feeling worse still. _I ain't had a moment's peace for the past few days. It's nonstop about you._

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Restarting her wind-up, Marie asked, "What was that? I can't hear you."

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry," he said louder and looked her in the eye, wanting to apologize for everything he had done to her. His tongue wouldn't loosen from the sticky roof of his mouth. All he could manage was, "Just…sorry."

Her hold went slack and her arms dropped down to her sides. She stared at him, gauging his sincerity. His frown didn't express a quarter of how heavy his head and heart felt. He imagined her, at home in her trailer, about in the same position Eddy had been after his big brother humiliated him. Or out here at the junkyard, destroying the replicas of him. Instead of fear at her fury, there was a somber, sad tone to the thoughts that made Edd want to comfort her.

A few short moments passed and Marie's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. Sorry too," she said, just as sincere for her part in all this. Without another word, she shuffled away, absent-mindedly giving a weak kick to any rocks in her path.

Edd wanted to reach out to her. Wanted to ask her to forget this all ever happened and start again. But he was stuck in trance, unable to break free until she was out of sight and out of the junkyard.

When the feeling finally returned to his body, he berated himself for not going after her. He made up for it by racing around the piles of trash, searching for her. His lungs all too soon burned from all the overexertion today and he slowed to a stop, wheezing and holding onto a piece of plywood for support.

 _Not like we could start over or forget all that happened_ , he thought, reasoning with himself. _Or start anything at all at this point._ They had both hurt each other and would need time to heal and recover.

He had managed to stop their relationship from crashing into a pit beyond the point of no return. But they were still in a precarious and miserable slump, teetering on the edge. He wanted— no, needed to fix it, make up for his foolish and blind mistakes, and start the uphill climb back to where they were.

But how?

His eyes roamed the junkyard, vainly searching for some inspiration. And to his surprise, he actually found it. Laying on top of a trash can was a cheap, garishly orange tuxedo. If it wasn't complete with a bow tie and cummerbund, Edd would have taken it for a leisure suit.

The tuxedo sparked the beginnings of an idea. The basic outline and the more he thought about it, the more the details filled in and took form to reinforce the plan.

Renewed with a sense of urgency, Edd pressed through the junkyard entrance and raced back to the cul-de-sac. He had to pick up his money from the cut Eddy gave him yesterday. After all, he had to make sure he looked "sharp" for this to work.

 **A/N:** This was probably one of the hardest chapters to write for this story yet.

 **Pen:** I agree.

You do?

 **Pen:** Yes. It's hard to write when you want to jam nails into your eyes and under your fingernails to stop the seething hatred.

 **Sword:** You non-romantic jerk!

Yeah, jerk. Well thank you to all you people out there for reading it. Please let us know what you think of the story so far. As always, we love to hear from you all.


	5. Chapter 5: Take Ed Back

**A/N:** Behave this time, you two.

 **Sword:** I'm always on my bestest behavior when romance is involved.

 **Pen:** Yeah, right.

 **Sword:** *knocks Pen out* See? Silence for the audience.

*sighs* Okay, okay. Let's continue on, shall we? Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Thank you to Lilly The Omega Wolf, Writer25, and madmusicman for their reviews on the last chapter. Please enjoy.

 **Chapter 5- Take Ed Back**

Edd planned accordingly and set aside enough money to buy a decent suit while still having money left over for the rest of his plan. No doubt Eddy and Ed had gone all out to the extreme with their attire, but a nice, red suit jacket and slacks, and a white dress shirt were all he needed. Nothing too fancy.

His next stop was the local store. There were still old Fourth of July fireworks heavily discounted and stacked in a pile, so Edd stocked up on as many firecrackers as he could carry, as well as cheap glass bowls. Once he dropped those supplies off at home, he raced back to the junkyard, digging through every pile of trash he could find for old fishing poles, spool, and thread. In the end, he gathered together fourteen fishing poles, armfuls of spool and thread, and left a decent amount of money at the closed front office in an envelope in their mail slot.

By the time he finished, it was well into the afternoon. He considered readying the last component for his plan, but decided to wait until Monday. _I just hope this all works_ , he thought, looking around at the collected materials around his room. It had to work. It just had to.

* * *

Monday morning rolled around and Edd entered the school very early. As soon as the general crowd shuffled in, hands full of energy drinks and soda to make it through the day, he heard, "Hey! You!"

Several people were shoved out of the way in the crowd and the rest scurried away. Stomping through the parted wave of students, Lee and May targeted Edd and cornered him against his locker. _Saves me the trouble of tracking them down_ , he thought, even as they glared daggers at him and appeared ready to pound him into the wall.

"What's the big idea?" Lee said low so only Edd and May could hear. "I thought you were going to make up for things."

"I will. I am," he said, shrinking under the weight of their piercing gaze.

"Marie's still upset," May said.

Lee agreed. "She ain't going on about all day about it, but she's our sister, so we know."

"I know," Edd said. He quickly proceeded to explain in general what had happened at the junkyard, omitting some of the more personal details for Marie's sake, then his idea to make amends. As he laid out his plan, Lee and May backed off and listened carefully.

When he finished, the sisters exchanged glances, some hidden dialog passing back and forth between them. Lee gave a little shrug and May nodded with a smile. "Our sister's gonna be in love," May said in a dreamy, sing-song voice. "It'll be so romantic. All this love is making me swoon." She toppled over with the back of her hand to her forehead and Edd caught her.

Lee pulled her sister upright, failing to hide a grin of her own. "What do you need from us?" Lee said.

"Funny you should ask," he said. "There is one thing I would need."

"Name it."

"I'm not as much of an expert on Marie as you two. Can you please give me a list of her favorite songs?"

"Done," she said. "Anything else?"

He tapped his chin in thought. The materials he had gathered would take a while to set-up. Not only that, but timing would be everything for this and he couldn't be rushing around all over the place to set things off. "Some help would be appreciated," he said. "Just to get things started. The rest should handle itself. And a few people to help put it all together. I'll have only a small window to get this done."

"I think we know of a couple of strong, strapping hunks who could do that," May said, again having an unspoken conversation between herself and Lee.

"Yeah, we'll get you some help," Lee said. "We'll make sure it all goes off without a hitch. You just make sure it's one of the best nights ever for Marie, got that?"

"That's the plan," he said. "Thank you." The bell rang and he tightened the straps on his backpack. "I must be going. We'll finish the details later."

"Get outta here, you lovebird," Lee said, thumbing over her shoulder.

Edd spun around and ran to his class. So far, this was coming together better than he thought. But the big question still loomed over his head. How would Marie react?

* * *

The weeks seemed to pass too fast and too slow at the same time. One minute, Edd gnawed his pencils, snapping more than one in half as he waited to enact his plan. The next, he was rushing around, making last minute notes to himself and worried over every little scenario where things went wrong. Maybe the music Lee and May had provided him were songs Marie used to like and no longer did? Maybe one of the bowls would shatter, spilling glass everywhere? Maybe in some crazy series of events that usually seemed to happen, he would be hoisted by his own petard in embarrassment. Or likely by the fishing poles, dangling like an awkward nerd high above for everyone to laugh at?

Or maybe Marie wouldn't appreciate the gesture at all and refuse him?

The last one was the worst fear of all and Edd had to keep reassuring himself of the path he was on. If he didn't, he would collapse.

All too soon, the weekend of the homecoming dance approached. The day his plan would come to fruition. He arrived at the high school gym where the dance was supposed to take place a few hours early. Thankfully, the school's faculty had already arranged the tables, the decorations, and the dj booth that Friday, so the gym was deserted for now.

Edd waited outside the gym, fishing poles jutting out of his backpack and under his arms, and a borrowed suitcase from his parents filled with the glass bowls and firecrackers. He scanned the sloping hill in front of him, and the parking lot beyond for the Kankers.

"You going to stand there until the dance?" someone said behind him. He whirled around, surprised to find Ed and Eddy behind him. "Or are we going to go in?" Eddy asked, hands in his pockets and jerking his head at the door.

"What are you two doing here?" Edd asked, standing in front of the suitcase.

Eddy raised a humored eyebrow and allowed Ed to answer the question. "We're here to help," he said.

"Told you we knew a couple of guys," May said, as she and Lee rounded the corner.

"Wait, you asked them? And you said 'yes'?" Edd pointed back and forth between his friends and the Kankers.

May leaned on Ed's shoulder while Lee propped her elbow on top of Eddy, much to the short boy's chagrin. "These two were only too happy to help, weren't you Eddy?" Lee said, her face in his.

Suddenly, it clicked in Edd's mind. Ed's dwindling fear of May; the Kankers having dates a few weekends ago; and where both sets of Eds and Kankers had been disappearing to each weekend. To be around one another. Even Eddy's mention of their "cut" for selling the homework answers. He had help building their clientele and earning money. Help from _Lee Kanker_.

As the puzzle pieces finally filled in to questions he didn't even realize he had, Eddy swung open the gym door. "Let's just get this over with," he said, irritable and with a tomato red face. "I still need to get ready."

The gym was dimly lit and everything was waiting for the audience to arrive. "So what's the plan?" Eddy asked.

Edd nodded and withdrew a blueprint he had drawn earlier of the gym. He opened the suitcase, exposing the bowls lined with firecrackers, dropped the fishing poles he was holding, and dumped the rest out of his backpack. Everyone stared confused at the assortment of random junk, but waited as he unfurled the blueprint on a table.

"Here's the plan," he said, pointing to the layout of the gym in the center. "We line the bowls along the fishing spools and thread like so. I've selected a certain song," he said, fishing a flash drive out of his backpack, "for the dj to play that I think would be perfect after hours of listening to the list of songs Lee and May provided." He stared at the disc, shuddering at the thought of the hard rock, thrash metal, punk, and screaming goth songs they had provided. None had been to his taste in the slightest, but they seemed to fit Marie very well. The tune on the flash drive was the one he found he could stand the most and it was as close to a love ballad as he could find amongst the group.

"When the song plays, I'll approach Marie," he said.

"We'll make sure she's here," Lee said.

"Then we'll light up the firecrackers," Edd said. "I've rigged all of the firecrackers in the bowls with matches that will light them and set them off in the exact sequence as soon as the thread is pulled."

"Oh, I see what it'll do," May said, tracing a line through the bowls drawn on the page.

"Exactly," Edd said, looking up into the rafters of the ceiling. "We need to hang them high enough to not be seen, but not too high. We'll need some ladders for this."

"On it!" Ed said and grabbed May's hand, dragging her down to the hall of the gymnasium to search for some. She didn't seem to mind and ran along with him, laughing.

"I'll get some lights on," Lee said, wandering off to find the breaker, leaving Edd and Eddy to arrange the poles and bowls.

Edd glanced at Eddy, a smirk inching up his lips. "Shut up," Eddy said, gathering some of the poles and dragging them out to the middle of the floor.

"So what happened to going stag?" he asked, carrying some of the bowls.

"We _are_ still going stag," he said, not looking at him. "For you and Marie. Then we'll meet up at the dance."

"So all that back in the cafeteria that day, the whole 'As if we would go with you', was all an act?" Eddy didn't answer. "How did this happen?"

"I could only pull in so many people," he said. "So I outsourced some help."

Eddy's silver tongue and Lee's brawling nature was a force to be reckoned with indeed for sales. "And then?" Edd said.

"And then things happened," he said quickly, grumbling under his breath. Then he turned with a wicked grin. "The same thing that probably happened at your 'tutoring session'," he said, using air quotes. "Didn't think you were devious enough to use a line like that, Sockhead."

"It wasn't a line!" What had Lee told him? And for that matter, what had Marie told Lee? "She honestly wanted my help," he said, trying to set the record straight. Eddy didn't buy it. "I was the one who was tricked."

"Yeah, sure," Eddy said as the lights came on.

There were more questions he wanted to ask, but Lee was on her way back. He would interrogate Eddy later and clear up this misunderstanding about what happened between him and Marie. "So how did Ed and May happen?" he asked.

"You'll have to ask Lumpy about that," he said. "All I know is if they're not watching monster movies, they're getting burgers or at the pet shop, playing with the animals."

That seemed sweet, he thought. Ed and May frolicking through a horde of fluffy animals in childish delight and their faces aglow. Then Edd remembered his simple friend's overzealous tendencies around small creatures and hoped for those animals' sake that there were a lot of horror movies coming out this year.

Ed and May returned shortly after with ladders and their clothes somewhat rumpled. Edd didn't ask and they didn't tell. Then the five of them set-up the ladders and strung up the fishing poles along the ceiling, adjusting the bowls and firecrackers within them to perfection.

"Looks pretty good," Eddy said, once they finished.

"Yes, it does," Edd said, looking between it and the blueprint. "And the spools are all tied to where you and Ed can reach them?"

"I think so," Ed looked at the fishing poles on his end. "I'll check on it!"

Edd grimaced, fearing more than that may have been forgotten. "Get going," Eddy said, shoving him to the door. "We'll handle it. You got to get ready."

"If you're sure," he said slowly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure. Now go."

* * *

When Edd arrived at home, he was so anxious, he could hardly put his suit on. His fingers fumbled nonstop and he creased his coat and shirt the more he adjusted them. It didn't help that he waited outside his house, wringing his hands and looking at his watch as he waited for the cab that Eddy had hired to pick him up. A good half-hour after the dance started, the yellow cab careened around the corner and slammed to a stop in front of him.

Eddy threw the door open. "C'mon, get in. We don't all night."

"We're already late," Edd said, hopping in and shutting the door. Before he could buckle himself, the cab sprung into high gear, flattening him against the backseat.

"Fashionably late," Eddy corrected, flicking lint off his bright yellow suit. To his other side, Ed smiled and nodded along, surprisingly well put together in a baby blue tuxedo. Edd assumed he had had some help dressing neatly.

When they arrived at the dance, Eddy kicked open the door and stepped out. "The main event has arrived!" he announced as if standing on a red carpet. Few people acknowledged him, most continuing onto the dance. Turning around, Eddy waved his arm. "Let's go, boys. We got hearts to break."

The gym had completely transformed in the dark, with colored lights flashing different hues from above to the music, sometimes even turning off completely for a second or using strobe effects. The music thumped and rattled Edd's teeth as he followed his friends. People mingled and jostled to and from the dance floor and their tables, bumping into Edd left and right. By the time they finally reached a wall, Edd's shoulders were bruised and sore.

Standing again the wall, May and Lee waited for the boys. May bounded over to Ed, showing off her sun-flower and white dress. "You like it?" she asked. "I wore it especially for you."

Meanwhile, Edd searched for Marie. "Where is she?" he asked Lee.

Lee had opted for a fiery scarlet dress to match her hair and temper. She looked between her date and Edd, chewing on a toothpick. "Marie says she's not coming."

"What?!" Edd's head spun. "But I thought you said you would make sure she was here." She wasn't coming? Then all this planning was for naught? _No, no, no._ It had been too perfect. It wasn't supposed to go like this. Maybe he could run to the trailer and change her mind? Was the cab still outside?

Lee gazed off into the distance, then back to Edd and her face broke into a small grin. "I didn't say she wasn't coming," she said. "I said that she said she wasn't coming." Edd failed to see the difference and looked to Eddy for an explanation. His friend had caught on and shared the same expression as Lee. "If I know my sister, and I do," Lee continued, putting her hand on Edd's head and twisting him toward the doorway. "she'll be here."

Edd desperately searching through the crowd. He caught a flash of blue hair and then saw her face. There she was! She was here!

"Now," Lee said, flicking the toothpick at a group of popular girls near the dj booth. One cried out and yelled some curses about how disgusted she was and demanding to know who had gall to hit her with such a "filthy" item. "I want to steal a dance with my little weasel before we have to get set-up." She waited expectantly for Eddy, who offered her his arm. Then they headed into the middle of the dance floor, followed right behind by Ed and May.

 _Okay, now for the dj_ , Edd thought, hurrying to the booth and side-stepping the upset girl. He dug into his pocket for the flash drive. He hoped the dj took requests.

When he reached the booth, the dj was bent over, digging through a backpack and pulling out cords. "Excuse me," Edd shouted loud to be heard over the speakers. "Do you do requests?"

"Can't hear you. Hang on," the dj said. Edd stepped back from the booth and the dj hopped down to the floor and out of range of the booming speakers. "What do you want, dork?" he asked.

 _Of course it had to be Kevin_ , he sighed to himself. Kevin crossed his arms, having traded out his red cap for a darker one to suit his tuxedo for the evening. "Do you take requests?" Edd asked, holding out the flash drive.

Kevin sneered at the drive and pushed it into Edd's chest. "Not a chance. Get out of here."

"I'll pay you," he said, reaching for his money. "I'll pay you to play it in ten minutes."

Kevin stopped and stroked his bristly chin. "How much?"

He almost said, "Thirty," but knew if Kevin was aware he had thirty, he would demand more. He had to start low and work Kevin down. "Ten," he said.

"Forty."

"Twenty."

"Thirty."

"Done!" Edd said a little too excitedly and reached into his pocket for the money.

"Actually, I changed my mind. Forty," Kevin said.

"But I," Edd fingered the bills in his pocket. What could he do now?

"Forty or no deal," Kevin said, turning to head back to the booth.

"Wait, maybe some kind of deal," Edd said, racking his brain. "I could do you homework. Wash your bike."

"No," he said. His smirk widened and he was enjoying watching Edd flail for some kind of rescue line.

Edd considered groveling, but that would only be playing into Kevin's hand and wouldn't convince him anyway. _Forget it_ , he thought. _I'll do it without the song. I'll sing it to her if I have to._ Although he doubted he could carry a tune, much less be heard at this dance. Still, it would be something. Besides, he doubted Kevin would play the song for him even if he had the money.

Suddenly, as if sent from above, Nazz disentangled herself from the group of popular girls and broke into their conversation. "Hey, Kevin," she said. "How's it going?"

"O-Oh, um, good," he said, immediately losing the sneer and his forehead breaking out into a sweat. "How about yourself?"

"I'm good." She turned to Edd. "So will he play the song?"

"The song?" Edd asked, wondering how she knew about the flash drive. Had she overheard them?

"Yes, silly. The song I asked if you could get the dj to play." She returned to Kevin. "I didn't know you would be the dj here or I would've asked myself."

"Oh, the song was for you?" Kevin said, opening up and being more receptive.

"Yeah, I just heard it a while ago and I really liked it. I wanted to play it at homecoming and dance with someone," she said, batting her long lashes at him. "Someone special."

"Well, I mean, I could squeeze it in," Kevin said, tugging at his bowtie. "No problem."

"Thanks, Kev. You're the best," she said. "Here, I'll give you the money."

"Oh, no, it's not necessary," he said, absent-mindedly taking the flash drive and forgetting that Edd was even there. "I'll play it free of charge. But you know, I wouldn't mind being that someone to dance with you."

"You got it," she said, flashing a brilliant smile at him. The change was astonishing as he stumbled back to the booth in a dream-like haze, flash drive clenched in his fist.

"What are you still standing around here for?" Nazz asked Edd. "I'm sure you got someone to find. Get going. You got less than ten minutes."

"Right," he said, shaking off his stupor. "Thank you!"

She waved him on and she soon disappeared amongst the crowd of dancers as Edd sought out Marie. He hoped she was still here and hadn't left. Or worse, that she wasn't dancing with someone else instead. _That's just silly_ , he thought. Still, his feet moved faster and he shoved his way through the mass of people.

Finally, he found her by the refreshments, arms crossed over a glittering black top as she leaned on the table. She kicked one foot over the other, hiking up her short and stiff translucent sea-blue skirt even higher. She caught Edd's eye and he smoothed down his tie, approaching her carefully.

"Hello, Marie," he said, more at ease than he expected. _Compliment her._ "You look, uh…" _Beautiful, gorgeous, pretty, pick one._ "Beautiful."

"Thanks," she said, brushing a bang behind her ear and re-adjusting the black headband in her hair. She looked him up and down, appraising his outfit. "You clean up well, cutie."

"Thank you." He glanced into the crowd, catching Eddy's eyes. His friend gave him a thumbs up and gathered together Lee, Ed, and May. _Time to get into position._ "Would you," he said, finding the actual question much more difficult to ask than when he had rehearsed it in his head. She stared at him, waiting for him to finish. "That is, would you care to dance?"

She snorted good-naturedly and shrugged. "I'm dressed for it, aren't I?" He was slow on the uptake and she took his hand. "Meaning let's go."

"R-Right," he said, trailing along after her until they were in the middle of the floor. She turned and faced him, then took his hands and placed them on her waist. Thankfully, it was a slower song at the moment, so Edd didn't have to concentrate much besides shuffling his feet. He just had to keep from losing his cool as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in close enough to see her make-up, from a richer shade of eye shadow to finely applied lipstick. And at this angle, he could count each of her cute freckles adorning her cheeks. His heart raced faster. She really was a sight to behold whether close or afar and he hadn't appreciated that nearly enough.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted May and Lee in their respective corners. From the front, he saw Nazz flirting with Kevin, tracing circles on his arm as he stuck the flash drive into his computer and pressed a few buttons. The slow song ended and faded out into the background. _Here we go_ , Edd thought.

An all-too-familiar drumbeat played, followed by a series of guitar notes and the dancers around them picked up on the upbeat tempo, breaking from the slow dance hold and moving to the beat. Marie's eye popped open and she raised her head to the stage, then at Edd. He couldn't contain the goofy, guilty grin from spreading across his face, especially as she beamed. "No way," she said.

The colored lights cut out during the chorus, blanketing parts of the gym in darkness. Some screams and hollers resounded out in the areas and people spun about, confused. The lights were immediately replaced with firecrackers exploding in the glass bowls above that dangled from the fishing poles. They popped and banged, scaring everyone into leaving the dance floor besides Edd and Marie, bathed in the makeshift spotlight of the crackling explosives.

Edd looked up with Marie at his work. High above, the glass bowls had been arranged to spell out "BE MINE, MARIE?" as the fireworks lit up each container of glass. If her face was bright before, it was now positively glowing. _Success!_

Unfortunately, the perfectly placed message was not to be for long. One of the glass bowls crashed to the floor, far enough away from everyone, but still spreading sharp shards all over the polished wood. Then another and another, all around the stranded couple.

In the distance, Edd heard Eddy screaming at the culprit. "Ed! You said you tied those tight!"

"Don't worry, guys! I'll fix it!" Ed said, climbing the retracted bleachers on one side of the gym. Before he could reach the top, he lost his grip and fell back onto the ground. "Look at all the fireworks! They look like stars!"

"You'll be seeing stars soon enough!" Eddy said.

Meanwhile, the message was thoroughly ruined, now reading "E M N, ARI?", with bits and pieces of the missing letters revealing what they once spelled out. Edd couldn't bring himself to face the girl before him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised the punctuation is still up there," she said. "You'd probably be mortified if a sentence never had proper punctuation."

"Sorry," he said, hanging his head. "It wasn't supposed to go like this."

"It never does," she said, tipping his chin upwards with her finger. "But I appreciate the gesture." She kissed his lips and he eagerly returned the kiss, not questioning his good fortune. All he knew was that the sparks in the bowls and on the ground didn't begin to compare to the absolute explosions of ecstasy he experienced in that kiss.

When they broke apart, there was some scattered cheers and clapping, mostly from Lee and May, while the majority of dancers were puzzled by the whole event. "So does this mean…?" Edd trailed off, letting the question hang in the air.

"Always have, always will," she said. "Same for you?"

"Of course," he said.

"Good," she said. "Let's get out of here and go somewhere more private." She jerked her head to the audience, where some chaperones and deans were forcing their way through the students.

"Right," he said and they ran out of the gym and into the cool, refreshing night together, beaming like drunk, merry fools.

 **A/N:** In case anyone was wondering—

 **Pen:** They weren't.

While writing this, the song we had in mind for this was the "Everywhere" cover by Yellowcard. Seems to fit, we think.

 **Sword:** Thank you all so very wery much for reading this! Please, please, please let us know what you think of it and we'll see you next time! Bye-bye!


	6. Chapter 6: My Secret Ed

**A/N:** Okay, last chapter.

 **Pen:** It better be.

 **Sword:** But not the last story.

 **Pen:** Ugh.

 **Sword:** Hi all you lovely peoples!

Thank you so much for reading all the way through to the end with us. Let's not waste any more time. Ed, Edd, n Eddy and all related material belongs to Danny Antonucci and Cartoon Network. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Please enjoy.

 **Chapter 6- My Secret Ed**

The return to his previous standing with Marie wasn't as immediate as Edd had hoped, but the gesture had re-opened her door and she let him in. "Pretty smooth with the fire crackers," she had commented.

"I had some inspiration," he said, rubbing his neck.

It took a couple of weeks until Edd felt like they were back on solid ground and where they had been before. Marie continued acting coy and flirtatious in public. Yet in private, well, the thoughts of her more intimate and personal demeanor always made his cheeks burn and blush.

Still, Marie had been the first to invite him in when this all started. And while he had accepted and they had grown close, there was a nagging sensation that he hadn't quite met her level of commitment, that she had bared more of herself to him than he had to her.

One last grand gesture formulated in his mind to resolve this itch. Perhaps too grand, as the thought alone made him more anxious and worried than being the center of attention at the Homecoming Dance. Besides, it could very well drive her off, hence why he had kept it well-hidden. Until now.

Therefore, a few weeks after the dance, he sought out Marie at the junkyard. As usual, she was arranging some new manner of special effects, with an alien's head as the gruesome effect for the day. The head looked like it composed of ash and dirt barely held together by wires and attached to an orange prison jumpsuit, re-designed as some space suit with tubing wrapped all around it. He was just happy the body was no longer dressed like him.

When she turned around to grab her camera next to a row of similarly-built alien heads on the ground, she spotted Edd and broke into a grin. "Hey there, Oven Mitt."

"Hey," he said shyly, still thrown off by the unusual pet name. He mentally noted to ask her about that later. For now, Edd took a deep breath, deciding not to rush into his revelation. _Let it come naturally._ "What are you up to?"

"Come and see," she said, setting up her camera. He joined her and watched as she picked up a trigger off the ground that was connected to the alien head, pressed the button on top, and the alien's head burst into a cloud of smoke and dirt clods. "It's not finished yet. But I have the main mechanism down."

"Cool," he said and shoved back the reason why he was here. He wanted to stall as long as possible, hoping he could do this another day and yet knowing today would be better while he had the courage. "So where is everybody else?"

"May and Ed are out who knows where," she said, rewinding the film. "I don't know about Lee."

"I believe Eddy said something about a Halloween scam he had in mind. Maybe Lee is helping him."

"Maybe. Either way, it was too boring at home alone." She raised her eye and adopted a suggestive look. "Or is that why you came to find me? So we could have some alone time."

"No, no, no," he said quickly, then backpedaled. "I mean, that would be nice, but later. Uh, there's, um…" His throat constricted and he wrung and stretched his already too-loose shirt, airing his body out. _So much for letting it come up naturally. And why is it so hot?!_

"Yes?" Marie asked, drawing out the word as she fiddled with the camera settings.

"Okay," he said, walking past her, his fingers folded together and pressed to his lips in thought. _How to start?_ "Relationships are a two-way street, right? Give and take?" He looked to her for understanding and she shrugged.

"I guess you could say that."

"Yes, right. No, not that. No, no, that's not what I meant," he said. "Rather, they're a one-way street, that both people travel down, helping one another, sharing the load." That was even worse and Marie voiced his inner sentiments.

"How about you skip the analogies and just say what you want to say? I won't bite," then she chewed on her tongue, "at least until later."

"Right, yes," he said, trying to ignore the last remark in order to stay focused. Say what he wanted to say. "Okay, when all this started," he said, gesturing to Marie and himself, "I didn't exactly meet your first step. I tripped and I stumbled. You opened up to me and I messed that up."

Her expression became sober and she closed her camera. "Hey, no need to wallow in pity. We moved past that, remember?"

"Yes, we did," he said. "But you still shared yourself, your hobbies, your interests."

"Except you," she said with a wry smirk and he feared she had hit the nail on the head. "You're one of my interests I don't plan to share."

"Ah, right. You too," he said, chuckling a little. That helped ease his tension a bit. Exactly what he needed.

"And you stood up in the middle of a crowd for me," she pointed out.

"Yes, as did you too," he said. "But I haven't shared anything as personal as you have with me. Nothing that wasn't available to everyone else. After all, most of my habits and nature are like an open-book to people."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying," he said, his hand wrapping around the tail-end of his beanie, "that I'm opening up to you too."

Her eyebrow shot up and before she could protest, he had ripped his hat off, exposing the point of his head to her. She gaped at him, unable to tear her eyes away from his noggin and he lowered his eyes, embarrassed and vulnerable as if he had run bare-naked through the cul-de-sac. His fingers gingerly traced the horrific shame and once he had touched the end, he dipped his head back into his beanie. "So, now you know," he said, arranging his hat snugly. "The rumors were true. Some of them anyway."

An uncomfortable silence passed and he fully expected for Marie be disgusted and forever see that unsightly image when she looked at him. After all, he did in any mirror. The hat may as well have been transparent for how much he saw it. Her shoes crunched in the dirt as she neared him. He rapped his forehead with his knuckles. _Why did I do that?_

She touched his hand and her fingers trailed up to his cheeks, then his beanie, making him jump. She paused, watching, waiting for his approval and his body relaxed, allowing her to continue. Marie lifted the front flap of his hat, peering inside. "It's not that bad," she said. "Has a bit of character to it."

"Character?" That was the last word he would use to describe it.

"Yeah," she said, pecking his nose.

"So," he clasped his hands, squeezing his thin fingers together, "you're not, you know…"

She cocked her head. "With the gore I've worked with, that's pretty tame."

"Yes, but," he subconsciously stroked his beanie, twisting bits of the fabric, "I very rarely take this off. And when I do, well, it's not pleasant to look at."

"Neither is May, but I've survived that," she said.

"Yes, but it won't go away. I mean, say it slips off in the middle of the night, and you wake up and see that."

"Oh, the first thing you think of is us in bed together? And I thought I had the dirty mind," she teased and his face turned beet red. She giggled and took his hand. "I don't care. It's part of you and I like you. That's all there is to it."

That was all there was to it. Simple, but effective. Her warm palm against his said it all and she leaned into him reassuringly. "Very well," he said, kissing her, then gestured to the alien heads "So, you want some help?"

"Sure. Then maybe later tonight, you and I can study," she said, biting slightly on her lower lip and sizing him up and down. "I could use some help with charts and graphs. That rise over run stuff throws me off. Specifically peaks going into valleys." She pressed against him, her soft body molding into his. "If you catch my drift."

"Crystal clear," he said, his clothes suffocating him even more with how unusually warm and tight they were. He pecked her lips, slowly losing his balance, and they fell back into the dirt, neither really focusing on the abandoned camera or alien heads. For now, there was just the two of them. That was good for Edd and for Marie, now and always.

 **A/N:** Whew, this was a tough one. We went back and forth of how to do this, but wanted to keep it short and sweet as a closing chapter.

 **Pen:** I suppose short is the most I can get out of you two. Now I'm off for a stiff drink.

 **Sword:** Oh, did that ending get you all hot and bothered? I can help.

 **Pen:** I meant something to sedate my nerves, you ninny!

 **Sword:** Oh, I can sedate you well with a private dance.

 **Pen:** That's seduce, you moron! Okay, story over! Bye, get out of here. The author thanks you all and leave a comment if you want. Shoo, shoo! And take Sword with you! Out, out!

Bye everyone. Take care.


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